Credit Suisse reiterates underperform on Berkeley Group Holdings

Berkeley Group Holdings remains "a very well managed business" but it was not immune to the weakening conditions which were being experienced in the inner London new build housing market, analysts at Credit Suisse said.

For that reason, analysts Samuel Thomas and Harry Goad reiterated their 'underperform' recommendation on the stock of the company even as they revised their target price considerably higher.

In particular, they noted how management at Berkeley had highlighted significant market weakness in current trading, with no new launches having been made over the five-month period to May and reservations down by 20% year-on-year.

Market conditions for properties over the £1.25m threshold appeared to be particularly challenging, Thomas and Goad said in a research note sent to clients and dated 15 June.

Nonetheless, following Berkeley's fiscal year 2016 results the broker revised its estimate for earnings per share in fiscal year 2017 2.0% higher.

Likewise, after rolling over their target price matrix onto their fiscal year 2017 earnings forecast for the company, the target price rose from 2,372p to 2,648p.